Product description

It was the "Description de l'Egypt", published in Paris in 1809-1928, that first drew Western attention to Egyptian art and architecture. Using this work as his primary source, Dieter Arnold has reconstructed and redrawn all of the lost buildings of the Late Period - some in computer assisted images - and redrawn all other available plans. These, along with photographs of extant temples dating to Ptolemaic and Roman times, are included in this study of the formal and stylistic development of Egyptian temple architecture. Set against the background of the struggle of Egyptian culture with Assyrian, Greek, Persian, and Roman instrusion, the study places special emphasis on the survival of Egyptian building elements in Roman and Medieval European architecture. The book includes descriptions of building volume, stylistic evaluations, and foreign connections of the monuments as well as a detailed account of all known building activities from the end of the New Kingdom (c 716 BC) to the end of the Roman period.

Review quote

Dr Arnold's study will remain a major source book for a long time and a requisite volume in any library that is concerned with later Egypt and its temple architecture. The Antiquaries Journal Arnold's Temples of the Last Pharaohs manages successfully to combine architectural history with a much broader archaeological interest in the changing role of architecture over time ... useful and most informative. Cambridge Archaeological Journal

Table of contents

Preface; PART I: THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURE OF THE LATE PERIOD; 1. The Last Tamples of the New Kingdom?; 2. The Third Intermediate Period; 3. The Kushite Period; 4. The Saite Period; 5. The 28th to 30th Dynasty; 6. The Second Persian Domination and the Macedonian Dynasty; 7. The Ptolemaic Period; 8. The Roman Period; PART II: LATE PERIOD SACRED BUILDING FORMS; 9. Wabet; 10. Pronaos; 11. Entrance Porches and Kiosks; 12. Birth Houses; 13. Cult Terraces; 14. Columns; 15. Screen Walls; 16. Broken Door Lintels; PART III: CONCLUDING REMARKS ON CHARACTERISTICS OF LATE EGYPTIAN TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE; 17. Stylistic Developments and the Formation of Types; 18. Archaistic Tendencies; 19. Divinities Distinguished by New Temples; 20. Patrons and Builders; 21. Egyptian Late Period Architecture and Western Architecture; Glossary; Abbreviations; List of Late Period Temples